Padraig Harrington again failed to get to grips with the Oakland Hills layout as his US PGA challenge faltered in today's second round. The Dubliner, unable to find his touch on the greens yesterday, carded a scrappy round of 74 to slip back into the pack on five-over for the tournament, six behind clubhouse leader JB Holmes.
The Open champion had opened with a birdie but then bogeyed the 11th and 17th to go out in 36.
The back nine was less pretty, a birdie at 10 being undermined by three bogeys in a row at the third, fourth and fifth holes. Harrington managed to stop the rot with a birdie at the sixth but the respite proved temporary as two closing bogeys further blotted the copybook.
On a day of high scoring at the Detroit venue - only a handful of the early starters returned cards under par - the Dubliner is in little danger of missing the cut which is currently set on seven-over.
"I just ran out of steam," Harrington said afterwards. "It was a struggle for me. I did my best to be ready for the week but clearly I'm not.
"What can I say, the harder I tried the worse it got. I haven't got the focus this week. I'm just not with it. Obviously, I'm still just having a hangover after winning The Open."
Although Harrington finished well off the early pace, he was optimistic he could reverse his fortunes over the weekend.
"I am hopeful things will turn around for the weekend and I don't think I'll be far out of the tournament," said the world number three.
"With two good scores on the weekend it might get me back in. We'll just have to wait and see."
Holmes shot a two-under-par 68 to share the lead with Spain's Sergio Garcia. The big-hitting Holmes was in the clubhouse on one-under-par 139 while Garcia had only reached the turn.
Overnight co-leader Jeev Milkha Singh of India was back at level-par after a bogey at the par-three 17th, his eighth hole at Oakland Hills Country Club.
Justin Rose moved into contention and bolstered his Ryder Cup hopes in the process. Rose, currently occupying the 10th and final automatic qualifying spot on the points lists, had carded a three-over-par, opening-round 73 yesterday but got the bit between his teeth during his early start to round two.
Rose carded four birdies and a bogey for a second-round 67 to move to even par for the tournament at the halfway stage.
American Ben Curtis also made headway to improve on an opening 73 with a 67, while South Korea's Charlie Wi was the other low scorer among the early finishers with a second consecutive level-par round of 70.
Ian Poulter, attempting to overtake Rose in the Ryder Cup standings, was level par for his round having opened with a three-over 74 yesterday.
Eight players were starting their second rounds at level par, including world number two Phil Mickelson, the 2005 PGA champion, 2007 US Open champion Angel Cabrera and Anthony Kim, the young American with two PGA Tour wins to his name this year.
Cabrera recovered from a bogey at his second hole of the day as he began his second round from the 10th tee to move to one under with an eagle three at the 12th, but had slipped back to one over par by his 15th hole.
Darren Clarke, on 11-over, will not figure over the weekend after a round of 76 scuppered any lingering hopes he had of making the cut. Graeme McDowell, who finished on four-over yesterday, was among the later starters and reached the turn on seven-over.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)